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Monday, June 1, 2015

Sand Hollow Triathlon weekend

The purpose of my weekend in St. George was for a girl's weekend golf trip. My friend and I try to do this at least once a year to reconnect and play some different courses. It just so happened that the Sand Hollow Triathlon was taking place on Saturday and since we were not teeing up until the afternoon, I thought "what the heck"! I really had not wanted to do a race around Sand Hollow because I know how hard the bike course is from training on it. Oh well, so much for saying "never".


It was a beautiful start to the morning, air temperature was about 70 degrees and steadily climbing as the sun came up. Transition was an easy setup and since I am always way early, I spent a long time waiting for my swim wave to start. 

About 20 minutes before my swim wave, I got in the water to warm up a bit. The weirdest thing happened to me (Ashlan, you're going to love this!). I was swimming on the opposite side of the dock where the race started, minding my own business when I felt something grab my foot. It freaked the hell out of me! I've spent the rest of the weekend convincing myself that it must have been a tree branch or something but I got out of there so fast that I will never know. Anyway my heart rate was up and I was ready to race! It was an in water start, we jumped off the dock and had about 30 seconds before the gun went off. It took me awhile to get into a rhythm and almost felt a little panicky at one point. I'm not sure what was going on - maybe it was the earlier foot thing :) but I did get into my rhythm and was out of the water in a little over 18 minutes although official time was 20 minutes because of where the timing mat was situated. Both of my transitions were about 2 minutes which for me is an improvement.
photo credit to Cindy Hathaway
Now off to visit my arch rival - Nemesis! Immediately, I started passing people on the bike so that built my confidence. As I approached the cattle guard where the mile long climb starts, I was geared down and was ready to ascend. And big surprise, I passed so many people! I was feeling really strong on the climb and again on the backside climb after the turnaround. The best part, of course, is the descent! I managed to hit almost 42 mph which I believe is my fastest. Even with that, I averaged just under 16 mph for the bike segment but considering climbing on the bike is my weakness, I'm happy with the result.

The run was hot, it goes out of the park onto the main road and there is no shade. I was able to run right off the bike and maintained my run/walk method for the most part. I was grateful to see the Southern Utah Tri Club tent and their people handing out water and gatorade and cheers! Normally on a 5k, I can get through without any hydration but with the heat, I welcomed it!

I finished at 1:49 and 5th in my age group. On one hand, I was a little disappointed to not have done better but on the other, I was happy with the time. Looking back at my open water swims in the past year of races, my pace on this swim was by far the fastest. I guess the work is paying off!

It was great to have fellow BAM team members at the race to cheer for and I'm super proud of Tucker for taking 3rd place overall. He's in high school and is going places!!!! Thanks to Cindy for taking pictures and for the cheers!

The rest of the weekend went as planned with golfing! Nothing like playing two days, 36 holes in hundred degree weather. The scenery was great and the company wonderful. We even finished off the weekend with some stand up paddle boarding. My first time doing that and I'm totally in love with it and can't wait for my next time!




Next up for me - swimming with the sharks! Can't wait to tell y'all about how Escape from Alcatraz goes.